Michael Cole is on commentary and hypes The Rock’s return tonight, claiming he is here to evaluate which Superstar may be his WWE Royal Rumble opponent – WWE Champion CM Punk or Ryback.

John Cena comes out to the ring to a mixed reaction and talks about Punk vs Ryback in the TLC match tonight. He brings up The Rock’s return and says you can almost feel the electricity and the boots wants to be put to assess. Cena hypes Rock’s return and the crowd pops. He brings up WrestleMania and Royal Rumble. He is then interrupted by Dolph Ziggler, AJ Lee and Big E Langston on the stage.

Ziggler says the fans may have come to see Cena or The Rock tonight but it’s him they will remember when the night is done. AJ speaks and says she is upset about Cena slopping her last week. She is also upset with Cena toying with her heart. AJ can’t believe she chose to lose her job over someone like Cena. She calls him a petty, pathetic, little man. A very little man, she says. Cena says AJ just made her first ever wiener joke, and he gets the crowd to do the wave for AJ. Cena goes and Ziggler interrupts him. Ziggler says he’s had enough and announces that he will take part in the Rumble and his primary goal isn’t to win but to make sure Cena doesn’t.

Cena scares them by threatening to slop them. He makes a joke about AJ messing around with Ziggler and Big E. He says he’s done and wants to fight. He calls Ziggler down to the ring for a fight and the crowd boos. Big E says it’s on but Cena ignores Big E and tells Ziggler to come down. Their match is next;

1) John Cena defeated Dolph Ziggler with the Attitude Adjustment. Big E had interfered when the referee was down and hit his finisher on Cena, putting Ziggler’s arm over him for the pinfall but the new referee was too slow out to make the count.

2) Kaitlyn defeated WWE Divas Champion Eve Torres by count-out, but didn’t win her title on DQ. The finish came when Eve ran through the crowd to get away from Kaitlyn and that led to the count out.

Santino Marella is backstage talking to Ricky Steamboat about his WrestleMania match against Randy Savage. Wade Barrett interrupts them and says he has made the Intercontinental Title mean something again. Barrett says Steamboat is just an old man blowing smoke and walks off. Steamboat asks Santino if he can be in his corner tonight. Steamboat says Barrett is gonna find out exactly how much smoke he can blow.

Matt Striker is backstage with Randy Orton who talks about the Royal Rumble. 3MB members interrupt and say one of them will win the Rumble and main event WrestleMania. Orton asks which of them he will face tonight. Slater tells him to pick his poison. Orton picks Slater.

After the match Barrett went to attack Santino but Steamboat came in to stop it. Barrett laughs and exits.

6) WWE United States Champion Antonio Cesaro defeated The Great Khali with the Neutralizer in a non-title match.
Paul Heyman is backstage with Brad Maddox. Heyman says he wants nothing to do with him but Maddox just yells back and attempts to stand up for himself. He says he can be of the service to Heyman and Punk. He has his ref shirt and has been suggesting to Vickie that he should be the ref tonight. Heyman says Maddox shouldn’t be talking to Vickie and the he threatens Maddox to go away.
7) Sheamus defeated Jinder Mahal with the Brogue Kick.
8) WWE Champion CM Punk defeated Ryback in a TLC Match to retain his title. The finish came when Ryback had the match won and was climbing the ladder to grab the belt before the lights went out and when they came back on The Shield were beating down Ryback. Punk’s broken body was able to climb the ladder with one arm as Ryback was down.

tart brawling but Big Show connects with a knockout punch out of nowhere for a quick squash win.

A bloody CM Punk comes out and slips the WWE logo off the microphone and says it’s time to say something personal. He talks about pipebomb and his honesty to the crowd. He says it doesn’t matter if you’re the best, there is a glass ceiling and nobody is allowed to break it. WWE is all about the more popular you are, the more money you make. That’s why Cena gets his title shots, that’s why a serious grappler like Daniel Bryan puts a smile on his face and uses catchphrases. That’s why there is a 400lb monster named Brodus Clay who dances and jives in the ring. That’s why an invisible kid named Little Jimmy is more of a fit on RAW than Tyson Kidd. Punk says the fans are falling for all this. Punk calls himself the most successful WWE Champion of all-time, and not just the modern era. He says if he was in Bruno Sammartino’s days he would have been champ for 20 years. You never saw Hulk Hogan wrestle TLC matches like Ryback.

Punk rips into the local fans and brings up Flair, Edge and Michaels and says they were dishonest when they said they did it for the fans. He is the best in the world. Punk says he doesn’t care if The Rock is back, he will still be WWE Champion in one year’s time.

Out comes The Rock to a huge pop from the Tampa audience. He cuts a long promo, trying to inject comedy, saying he will be WWE Champion again at the Rumble. He says the real number Punk should be worrying about is not the amount of days he has been champion, but how many he has left… just 20 days. The Rock gives him the Rock Bottom and poses as RAW goes off the air.